Hakstol spins alternative tale

VOORHEES, N.J. >> Perhaps he was trying to downplay his devotion to hockey analytics, but Dave Hakstol didn’t waste any time Tuesday analyzing his team’s continued poor offensive play in even strength situations.

He didn’t exactly go all Donald Trump alternative, but he did offer a different perspective to what otherwise seems obvious to almost everyone else ... his Flyboys aren’t gonna be great because they aren’t scoring enough when even-up with the other guys.

“Scoring on 5 on 5 (situations)? I’ve got to be honest with you, I think we’re scoring off them,” the faithful Flyers coach said. “But I think we’re giving up a little too much, too. All the focus over the past month and a half here has been on scoring . ... Yes, we have to score to come out on the plus side,

but we also have to make sure we’re defending well. That’s a real focal point.”

Hakstol was saying all this despite the Flyers tumbling from one of the top scoring teams in the league early on to 16th out of the 30 league teams in total goals at 126 heading into league play Tuesday night.

Break it down just a bit more and you see that without their 34 power play goals, good for third in the league overall behind Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay, there’s a reason they’ve been falling to the offensive minus side for much of the season.

In 5 on 5 play, the Flyers have 75 goals scored and 99 goals against. On any analytical sheet that spells ... “not great.”

Hakstol, perhaps having tried every line combination he can think of and knowing full well his bosses’ hands are tied with a very short rope to the league salary cap max, figures the best way to better balance the 5-on-5 ledger would be to cut down on the goals the other guys score.

“You can’t have one without the other. The two have to go together,” Hakstol said. “I like what I saw offensively from our game and I think we can generate more from the critical areas, in that slot area. We also have to make sure we’re defending a little bit better than we have been off the rush and in the zone.”

It’s not just the yuck and the yang of even-strength play which had dogged the Flyers during a stretch of only three wins in 15 games before Sunday’s 3-2 overtime win over the New York Islanders. The power play has struggled of late, too.

That could be a byproduct of a recent trend in which the Flyers — who on many nights are outsized down in the slot areas — have been firing a high portion of shots from the perimeter. Hence, in 5-on-5

situations, their club shooting percentage is ranked 24th at 6.94 percent. When including power plays, that number jumps to 8.52, or 21st.

Still not great. And if there’s any thought of pulling an upset Wednesday night against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, that facet of their game has to get back on track immediately.

“They’ve been getting pretty good chances, so they have to stay with it,” Hakstol said of his power play units. “They have to stay with it and find a way to finish off a few because it’s the time of year we need results.”

As far as their rather dismal shooting percentage, Hakstol avoided talk of Fenwick and Corsi and instead geeked out on shots missing the net and shots blocked ... maybe those subjects are unavoidable no matter what statistical language is used.

“The other night, what I was talking about was some of the pucks from up top not getting to the net,” Hakstol said. “Teams do a great job (blocking shots) now; sometimes you have two or three people in the shot lanes blocking pucks. So you have to look for different options. That’s one area that we can do a little bit better job at, looking for different options from those high plays.”

Despite a remarkable rookie season from Ivan Provorov and recently steadier play by Shayne Gostisbehere, Hakstol said the problem of players finding better scoring lanes went well beyond his two offense-oriented young defensemen.

“Certainly I wouldn’t limit it to young or old,” Hakstol said. “I think it’s something we can continue to work at.

“Individually there are a lot of areas of the game where a player can work hard. On a forecheck, on a backcheck; you can also work hard on that offensive blue line, working to create a shot lane for yourself.”